Telehealth Progresses: Medical Boards Draft Plan to Ease Path to Out-of-State and Online Treatment

With concern mounting over what is projected to be a shortage of primary care doctors in the not-too-distant-future, medical board officials have taken what they believe to be the first, necessary step in addressing that gap.  Recently, the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), the governing body comprised of the country’s medical agencies charged with the licensing, regulating, and disciplining of doctors across the U.S., drafted a model law that would open the door for doctors licensed in one state to treat patients in other states, whether in person or electronically.  Their recommendation represents the biggest change to medical licensing in decades and would create a new, speedier pathway for doctors looking to practice medicine in multiple states.  This latest FSMB proposal builds on the organization’s most recent attempt to remove the regulatory barriers impeding the widespread adoption of telemedicine.  While there is still some resistance to those efforts, it’s becoming harder to deny the transformative possibilities offered up by telehealth.